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So I'm trying to figure out what the movie is about actually. The movie starts with the topic of cell division and how everything originates from a single source or cell. Then goes to talk about cancerous cells and there are references to cancer several times, including the main scientist (Ventress) who was dying of cancer and the daughter of another scientist who died of leukemia. What makes cells cancerous is that they basically reproduce without boundaries and sort of stop cooperating with the rest of the body tissues. They sort or rebel against the expected role they need to fulfill and the boundaries they need to keep. By doing that they stop being a part of a larger system (the organ) and go back to a more primitive and basic function (cell reproduction just because).

Now this shimmering thing is several times mentioned to be constantly growing like cancer and sort of defying the boundaries of reality (physics, biology, etc) and how nature operates by combining DNA of different species and stuff so, in a way, it is behaving as a cancer metaphorically speaking. But it not only affects physical composition but also mental. When Dr Ventress is inside the lighthouse just before she spits out that light she's sort of rambling about and unboundless (again reference to cancerous behavior) mind and how the thing is inside her. She mentions the thing is breaking everything into pieces until nothing will be left. So when cancerous cells stop cooperating with the body the function of the organs become disrupted so it is sort of breaking organs into smaller more basic pieces and functions. Sort of going back to the source material like that original cells where everything originated from and there was no specialized cells, organs and other functions that make up a whole body for example.

Also the shimmering looks exactly like what people see on psychedelic trips with lsd or mushrooms, also the light patterns Portman's characters sees in the end are also very similar to what you see while tripping. Usually people in psychedelic trips also report a feeling of going out of their physical bodies and connect with the universe in a way and becoming one with it, going back to being part of the original source where everything was one and nothing was differentiated (you're no longer yourself but your individual boundaries merge with the flow of energy of the entire universe).

The references to refraction and reflection are also part of it. So the reflection of you is basically you but looked from another perspective so it's an initial differentiation. The original cell basically separated into 2, then 4, etc by a similar process of copying itself and then these copies started becoming more different and different until specialization came about. The same when humans are born, you're basically a basic mixture of the DNA of your parents but then when you start being influenced by culture and your surroundings you become a different individual who was initially just a sort of copy. At one point in the film when Kane comes back and appears at Lena's house they are talking and they hold hands on the table but there's a water glass in front of their hands. Water refracts and reflects light so things get distorted and appear backwards so you can see them holding hands backwards maybe a reference how they are one and the same individual or unit as a couple is supposed to be for a functioning marriage to work. But then he takes his hand away separating the bond and we then come to realize that their marriage is in trouble and that Lena was having an affair. So again a reference to this cancerous behavior of separation from your role that destroys the unit which in this case was a marriage.

In the end, when Lena is telling the story and they ask her several questions she can't answer we can see again her hand through a water glass but this time there's no one holding it. We can still see a reflection of her hand in a backwards position. She is now no longer part of the married unit but an individual so she's becoming apart from the larger system she was once part of.

So the name of the movie makes sense if we look at a concept like entropy. The universe originated from one single source (also like the first single cell). After the big bang everything started differentiating itself and sort of taking up roles to make the universe as we know it (physics laws, atoms, etc). But the universe will eventually contract in itself, going back to the original source which is the reference to annihilation of any sort of difference. Entropy is a measure of the disorder in the universe, so how spread and evenly distributed the energy is in the system. If a portion of the energy becomes organized in a smaller system inside the larger one then the entropy of the universe decreases because there's some order somewhere. So when cells organize to form an organ or a body, for example, the entropy of the universe decreases and its constitution is less chaotic but when the body that holds that organ dies and the cells eventually break down into smaller simpler components then the entropy of the universe increases because the energy used to hold that organ together goes back to being part of the whole of the universe. So in a way, the universe is always looking to increase its entropy by annihilating differences of energy accumulation, annihilating difference and making everything sort of equal.

Anyways those were some random thoughts that came while watching the film. Now I want to take some lsd.